From the airstrip to sugarcane fields

Flying schools use the air space above the Drasa area in Lautoka to train their pilots. Drasa used to have a runway which is now covered with sugarcane fields. Picture: REINAL CHAND

THE tale of “Pilot Mani” still resonates among the elderly in a small community located on the outskirts of Lautoka City. As the nickname suggests, the man whose real name was Subramani, earned the moniker from excited locals who watched him become the first man from their settlement in Naviyago to sit in an aircraft. […]